The present invention relates generally to a rubber cutting or abrading apparatus. More particularly, the invention relates to a rotary tool used to remove rubber from a tire casing in the process of repairing the tire.
A wide variety of tire repair tools are well known in the art. Such prior art tools are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,742,655; 4,843,768; and 5,239,784. Generally, these prior art devices are constructed from a unitary base element having a grit or abrasive material applied at the periphery.
While several prior art devices have met with considerable success, they nonetheless all suffer from the disadvantage that application of the grit is a time-consuming and costly process that increases the overall cost of the device.
The present invention is directed to a rotatable cutting or abrading wheel assembly useful to finish rubber articles such as tire casings.
The assembly has three rotatable wheels, with a central abrading wheel disposed between a pair of lateral support wheels. Each of the three wheels is stamped and formed from sheet metal stock and includes one or more apertures to accommodate an abrading tool drive shaft. The central abrading wheel has a diameter greater than that of the lateral support wheels to thereby provide peripheral abrading portion which is comprised of a series of circumferentially spaced teeth.
The cutting wheel assembly made in accordance with the present invention has proven to achieve comparable, if not superior operational performance to that of conventional prior art grit-abrasive wheels. Notably, however, the assembly of the present invention is substantially less expensive to manufacture than are the prior art devices.